My cement backer board is set and I am finally ready to start tiling the bathroom floor. I am soooo excited to finally be putting my bathroom back together again. I have only tiled once before and it was a much smaller space, so this will be a true test of my DIY skills. Just like everything else, there are a lot of steps that go into tiling the floor, so let me walk you through them.
Step 1: Planning tile layout
This can be one of the most difficult and most important steps when tiling the floor, but according to my research, if you mess up here, your whole project could be ruined. Great… No pressure.
Before I could even begin, I had to find the exact center of the room. Starting your layout from the center will give you the most aesthetically pleasing outcome.
Because walls are not always square, I used a snap chalk line to help me find the center of the room. TBH, I’ve always wanted to try one of these! I started by filling the container with chalk. Unfortunately, the only chalk I had was red, which made it harder to see in the pictures.
I attached one end of the chalk snap line to the center point of one wall and attached the other end to the center point of the perpendicular wall. Once the rope is tight, you just snap it and it makes a perfect line on the floor.
Then I repeated the process with the second wall which gave me my center point.
The most important thing is that you don’t want end tiles to be too small or too thin.
So, starting from the center line I placed one row of tiles to see if I needed to adjust their placement for the width of the room.
I made sure I left 1/8 inch gap between the tiles to account for the grout spacing.
Luckily, one row of tiles fit perfectly across the width of the room. I think this is the first time something was actually easier than I thought it would be!
Next, I laid out the tiles to check the length of the room.
This was a bit more difficult because I had to ensure that there were large enough pieces on the ends for the entire length of the room as well as the length of the floor with the shower pan.
I had to make a number of adjustments to get this much of a gap at the end.
Once I was satisfied with the placement of the tiles I laid the tiles in that didn’t require cutting using 1/8 inch spacers to ensure the correct placement and uniform gap between the tiles. These ones are my favorite as they are sturdy and can easily be used with a variety of layouts.
I am really picky when it comes to the patterns on the marble tile. I don’t like it when the marble goes in different directions. So I chose each piece to make it look like the marble continued from one tile to the other. I feel like this makes it look more like it is one continuous piece of marble.
Because of my pickiness, this took me hours. Thank you sweet husband for taking the kids!
Step 2: cutting tiles
Here is the most time consuming part of the whole process, cutting the tiles.
To get the most accurate measurement, I laid the tiles that needed to be cut on top of the already placed uncut tiles.
Next I marked the tile exactly where it needed to be cut.
The tiles I chose were thick porcelain tiles. These are the best tile for the bathroom floor as they are durable and more water resistant than ceramic or others.
Porcelain tiles are tough to cut, so I rented a big ass wet tile saw.
It has a diamond blade and uses water from a reservoir to cool the blade so that the blade does not over heat.
Water spews everywhere when using it, so it is best done outside.
You simply put the tile in the appropriate spot on the moving table, then slowly move it into the blade.
I rented the tile saw for one day and was really motivated to not have to spend more money and rent it for another day. So I tried my hardest to be the most efficient as possible.
Because my tile saw was outside, I marked and cut 4 to 5 tiles at a time. Slowly, one by one, I started to see the floor coming together.
The detailed and intricate cuts took the most time. Often I would make a cut and have to trim it a few times. Normally, I could deal with this, but because of the time crunch I found myself wanting my glass of wine a lot earlier in the day. Don’t worry… I abstained.
There were a lot of cuts like this one where I had to cut a corner out of the tile.
After using the saw, a tiny piece of tile was left in the corner that made it not fit correctly. Just ask my youngest daughter, it’s always the tiny things that give you the most trouble…
I found the best tool for this was tile nippers. It removed that little piece of tile with no damage to the remainder of the tile.
You can see that there is a tiny bit of the corner I didn’t get, however…
…it fits like a glove, so no need to worry.
For the toilet area, I only had to cut a corner out of one of the tiles. It wasn’t necessary to cut a perfect circle to fit over the toilet flange as this area will be covered with the base of the toilet.
I was so close to finishing my tile cutting and getting the rental back on time, but my stupid sink sprung a leak and I had to spend an hour fixing it. Because of this, I had to rent the tile saw another day. In hindsight, I should have just done that in the first place to reduce my stress in the whole tiling the bathroom floor process.
Morning of day 2, I finally had my tiles all cut and got a preview of what the floor will look like.
Not too shabby!
Step 3: Prepping for laying the tile
Ok… Now that I had done all of that work, I had to undo it. I know, sucks, right? But you have to get the mortar under there somehow.
Because I spent so much time figuring out which tile looked best in each space, I had to find a systematic way of labeling each tile so I knew exactly where it was supposed to go.
I ended up marking lines directly on the floor.
Then I labeled the floor…
and each corresponding tile, making sure to mark which direction it should be facing.
I did this for 1/2 of the floor at a time so I had a place to store the tiles.
Here is what it looked like 1/2 way through. Organized chaos.
Step 4: Setting the tile with mortar
Previously I discussed the difference between modified and unmodified thin set mortar, so I won’t go in to that now, but for the sake of clarity, I used a modified thin set mortar designed for large format tiles.
I mixed the amount of mortar I thought I could use within 2 hours.
Using the flat side of a trowel, I spread the thin set, making sure to extend the mortar a little past where the tiles would lay. This is where the lines I drew came in handy.
Using the 1/4 inch notched side of the trowel, I raked the thin set to ensure it was evenly applied.
Next, I set the first tile and placed 1/8 inch spacers at the corners.
Then all you have to do is continue adding tiles and spacers to the area where thin set is spread.
I placed an entire row before pushing them securely in to place.
If you push them into place before adding additional tiles, they are very hard to move if adjustments are needed; however, you need to make sure that they are pressed in to place before the mortar begins to set.
I repeated this process over and over and over until all of the tiles were in place.
Because you shouldn’t walk on the tiles for at least 24 hours, I sectioned the room off and completed this process over a few days.
Step 5: Sit back and admire your work
Now I almost have a tiled floor! All that is left to do is grout after the mortar has set. I will go in to the grouting process in a later post because I want to grout the floor and the wall tile at the same time.
Just a reminder here a few pictures of the bathroom floor before…
And here are the after
Night and day, right? Of course the lack of wallpaper and brown fixtures really helps too. Can you believe it? I can finally do some before and after pictures!!!!!
I started this blog in the hope of inspiring other people to try something new, especially if it is unexpected. If you like what you are seeing, please like, comment, or share! Thanks for reading!